Certain delicate fabrics are not suitable for conventional in-home immersion cleaning processes. Home washing machines, which provide excellent cleaning results for the majority of fabrics used in today's society, can, under certain conditions, shrink or otherwise damage silk, linen, wool and other delicate fabrics. Consumers typically have their delicate fabric items “dry-cleaned”. Unfortunately, dry-cleaning usually involves immersing the fabrics in various hydrocarbon and halocarbon solvents that require special handling and the solvent must be reclaimed, making the process unsuitable for in-home use. Hence, dry-cleaning has traditionally been restricted to commercial establishments making it less convenient and more costly than in-home laundering processes.
Attempts have been made to provide in-home dry-cleaning systems that combine the fabric cleaning and refreshing of in-home, immersion laundering processes with the fabric care benefits of dry-cleaning processes. One such in-home system for cleaning and refreshing garments comprises a substrate sheet containing various liquid or gelled cleaning agents, and a plastic bag. The garments are placed in the bag together with the sheet, and then tumbled in a conventional clothes dryer. In a current commercial embodiment, multiple single-use flat sheets comprising a cleaning/refreshing agent and a single multi-use plastic bag are provided in a package.
Unfortunately, such in-home processes are designed for use in a conventional clothes dryer, or the like apparatus. Such apparatuses are not always readily available, and they are often uneconomical. Moreover, in many countries clothes dryers are simply unnecessary. For example, in many warm tropical regions people do not typically own clothes dryers because their clothes can be dried year-round by hanging them outside in the sun. In the areas of the world where people do not typically own clothes dryers, products that require a heating apparatus, such as clothes dryers, are of little or no value.
Steamer cabinets have also been utilized in the past to treat fabric articles with heavy doses of steam. Unfortunately, past steam cabinets were largely uncontrolled with respect to temperature and humidity. The cabinets were generally large appliances that were not portable. And due to the large amount of steam used, a drying step is often required that puts strain on the fabrics. The drying step also requires additional time and energy, and often results in undesirable shrinkage.
Thus, there was a need to develop a domestic, non-immersion cleaning and refreshing process, and cleaning and refreshing compositions for use therein, which provides acceptable cleaning without the need for a tumble dryer. Moreover, there is a need for apparatuses that can regulate both temperature and relative humidity within a container during a domestic, non-immersion cleaning and refreshment process, wherein dry clean only fabrics are cleaned, de-wrinkled and refreshed.
Thus, apparatuses were developed for treating a fabric article, which include a collapsible or expandable container that is made from a material that defines an interior void space having an open volume, and an opening. Such known apparatuses also include a humidity provider; a heating element; a hangar for suspending at least one fabric article within the interior void space of the container; a vent; and an air circulation device. The container can be collapsed so that the apparatus is portable. The heating element that is used in such known apparatuses is typically a steaming unit or equivalent which volatilizes the refreshing and cleaning composition by heating it up to its volatilizing temperature.
However, such apparatuses are usually provided with liquid refreshing/cleaning apparatuses via a liquid reservoir that is connected to the device, and there is a risk of leakage of such liquid containers at the time they are connected to the device. Such apparatuses are typically to be connected to the main electricity supply, and further contain electronic components that contain a large amount of electricity. Moreover, there is a risk of accidental removal of the liquid container while the device is being used, which could lead to damaging the apparatus or even injure the user. Finally, it is crucial that the connection/disconnection of the liquid container from said appliance be as easy as possible, in order to make the overall usage of the device simple to the consumer. Indeed, such apparatuses have been created to facilitate the tasks of cleaning/refreshing fabrics, so it is essential that all operations needed to operate such an appliance be as obvious and simple as possible for the consumer.
Thus, there is a need for a new fitment system that allows the user to frequently connect/disconnect a container, preferably a liquid container, to an electrical distribution device, preferably a liquid distribution device, that is connected to the main, which is extremely easy to use, and maintains the liquid container into the device in such a way that the risk of leakage is reduced to a minimum.